


Hysteria

by babydolljones1104



Series: Snapshot [2]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Anxiety Disorder, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, POV First Person, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Present Tense, Science Fiction, Sequel, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Slow Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-28
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:01:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 13,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24830482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/babydolljones1104/pseuds/babydolljones1104
Summary: It’s been almost a year since Sabrina’s Hammond’s father was found dead in his diner. A lot of things happened in the following week, and none of them were good. And even though Sabrina has had a year to move on from the events surrounding her father’s death, she’s doing worse than ever. The only thing that brings Sabrina comfort is the fact that it’s over, and that isn't about to last long.As if dealing with the memories of a monster from another world isn’t enough, things at school aren’t going much better either. After having multiple public freakouts, most of the school is convinced that Sabrina is crazy. And she doesn’t exactly disagree. She’s also busy trying to avoid Steve Harrington and Nancy Wheeler, not having spoken to either of them since last November. But avoiding anything from last year gets a lot harder when Steve shows up at Sabrina’s house with the news that things are starting to happen again and with no one else around, he and Dustin need her help. Even though it's the last thing she wants to do, Sabrina is suddenly forced to face everything she’s been avoiding for the past year.
Relationships: Steve Harrington/Original Character(s), Steve Harrington/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Snapshot [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1748317
Comments: 6
Kudos: 27





	1. Chapter 1

_October 29, 1984_

I pull into the Palace Arcade parking lot and look at my watch. I have five minutes until my seven o’clock shift starts. So, I turn up my radio and look at myself in the mirror. My hair is a mess and I have no way to fix it.

I sigh to myself. Today has been such a long day, going to work is the last thing I want to do. But I don’t have a choice. I find a rubber band and pull my hair up into a ponytail before sitting back in my seat, the events from earlier today still fresh in my mind.

During fourth period photography, some kid from my class had come up behind me while I was taking pictures in the woods. I thought he was the Demogorgon. To say that I freaked out would be a serious understatement. And the fact that I pulled my switchblade on him certainly didn’t help the situation.

In my defense, it was the same area where I’m pretty sure I almost encountered the Demogorgon last year. The only thing that had saved me that time was the bell ringing. That’s a moment I’ve thought about a lot in the past year.

But it doesn’t matter why it happened, because I can’t tell anyone. And by the time sixth period ended, I’m pretty sure everyone knew about what I did. Now everyone is more convinced than ever that I’m crazy. I’ve freaked out six times now in the past year when I was at school. Of course, there have been plenty of other episodes, the majority of them being in the privacy of my own home, thank god.

It’s been nearly a year since everything happened with Will, Eleven, the Demogorgon, and the Upside Down, but from the way I act most of the time, you’d think that it all only happened yesterday. I should be over it by now. I should have been over it a long time ago.

I glance down at the scars on my right arm, reminding myself that it’s over and I lived through it. Sometimes the reminder helps. Other times it doesn’t. Tonight it doesn’t. It hasn’t very much lately.

Jonathan told me that everyone would forget about it by tomorrow. I know he’s probably right. Some poor, dumb kid will undoubtedly be seen doing something stupid tonight, and by third period tomorrow, that will be all anyone can talk about. But it doesn’t change the fact that for right now, I’m all anyone can talk about. And it’s not the first time, either. Like I said, today was the sixth time something like this has happened at school. Jonathan has told me multiple times to ignore everyone, but that’s easier said than done.

I look at my watch again. Six fifty-nine. I get out of my car and head toward the arcade.

When I walk into the arcade, my coworker Keith says, “I heard you tried to kill Mark Quinn today.”

“I didn’t try to kill him.”

“Didn’t you try to stab him?”

“I pulled out a blade. I didn’t try to stab him with it.” I don’t admit that I probably would have, though, if I hadn’t turned around and seen his face first.

“How are you not expelled?”

“I don’t know,” I say because it’s easier and less embarrassing than explaining that a lot of my behavior is excused due to my “emotional issues”, which is the exact term the school counselor uses during a lot of our talks.

“What ab-”

“I’m done talking about it,” I say sharply.

I haven’t been at work long when Mike, Will, Lucas, and Dustin come over to where I’m working at the counter. “Hey guys,” I say. “What’s up?”

“Who’s Mad Max?” Dustin demands.

I have the feeling he isn’t referring to the movie. I have no idea what he is referring to, though. “What do you mean?”

Dustin gestures to the Dig Dug, which is currently displaying the scoreboard. His name has been bumped down to second place, and the name MADMAX now has the high score.

“He has the high score on almost every game here,” Will tells me.

I shrug. “Well, I have no idea who it is.”

“This is bullshit,” Dustin mutters.

I can’t help laughing as I say, “It’s not that big of a deal. Just get a higher score next time you play.”

Dustin rolls his eyes. “You say that like it’s easy.”

I don’t say anything. Admittedly, I don’t know anything about any of these games. I only work here because it’s easy money and I have a lot of bills to pay.

“I heard you tried to kill a kid today,” Mike says.

Even the middle schoolers are talking about me? Great. “That’s not exactly what happened.”

“Was it because… you know?” Lucas asked.

“Yeah.” I look over at Will, who’s even more quiet than usual. “Are you ok?”

He nods.

“Can we get back to the main issue here?” Dustin asks impatiently.

“What would that be?”

“My high score!”

I roll my eyes, but grab a handful of quarters out of my pocket and set them on the counter. “You guys can use these to try to win your high scores back.” I glare at Dustin as I add, “And you guys can go away now.”

“Thank you, Sabrina,” Dustin says before grabbing the quarters and running off toward Dig Dug.

Mike and Lucas follow him, but Will stays behind.

“Are you sure you’re ok?” I ask him.

He shrugs, not answering my question. Instead, he asks me, “When you have one of your episodes, do you see the Demogorgon?” He pauses before adding, “Or anything else?”

“Why do you want to know?”

“I’m just wondering.”

I don’t think that’s all that’s going on, but I don’t push the subject. “I don’t see anything,” I tell him. “I just get super paranoid.”

Will looks like that wasn’t the answer he’s looking for.

“Did something happen?” I ask. I know that Will has flashbacks from his time in the Upside Down.

“I’ve been having more episodes than usual,” He admits after a moment. Before I can say anything, he adds, “Don’t tell Jonathan.”

“I won’t. But you don’t have anything to worry about. I mean, the doctor at the Lab says they’re just flashbacks, right?”

“He did. But they feel so real.”

“Well, it’s over,” I say, trying to convince myself as much as I’m trying to convince him. “We’re all safe now.”


	2. Chapter 2

_October 30, 1984_

The second I get out of my car on Tuesday morning, people are talking about me. I’m not in the mood for any of this. Not only did this get old about eight months ago, but I’m in an especially bad mood with the lack of sleep I got last night. The small amount of sleep I did get was full of nightmares.

When I get out of my car, the group of girls standing in front of the car next to mine look at me and immediately start whispering about what I did yesterday. I ask them, “You guys seriously can’t find something more interesting to talk about?”

“What’s more interesting than a crazy knife-murderer?” One of them replies.

I only flip them off before I start walking toward the school. I already can’t wait to get the day over with.

By the end of second period, it’s evident that there’s only one thing more interesting than a ‘crazy knife-murderer’ as that one girl put it. And that would be a hot new guy. All anyone has been talking about today is Billy Hargrove, the new guy from California.

It makes me question my classmates' priorities, but I'm not complaining. It's taking the focus off what I did yesterday. I guess I’ll have to tell Jonathan that he was right about people moving on quickly around here.

I walk into third period chemistry and avoid looking at Nancy, who sits a few rows behind me. When I came back to school in January, I’d stayed away from Nancy. It wasn’t easy, considering that back then, she sat behind me in English. But I didn’t want to talk to her. I still don’t.

The guilt I feel over what happened last year is overwhelming, and just like everything else in my life, I avoid dealing with it.

Third period ends, and I only stop by the cafeteria long enough to get something from the vending machine before I meet Jonathan in the darkroom.

I’m leaving the cafeteria and shoving a bag of chips into my bag when I bump into someone. “Sorry,” I say, looking up. “I really need to pay more attention to-” And that’s when I realize that I’m talking to Steve. While I’ve spent almost a year trying to avoid Nancy, I’ve been trying extra hard to avoid Steve. And up until now, I’ve been successful in doing so.

When it’s clear that I’m not going to finish my sentence, Steve asks me, “How are you?”

It’s such a normal question, that it takes me a second to ask, “Are you kidding me?”

“I heard about yesterday-”

“Yeah, so has everyone else.”

“Well, if you need to talk to someone…” He trails off, shrugging.

I laugh quietly. “Please don’t pretend that there’s something wrong with me.”

Steve gives me a look. “Can you honestly tell me that you think you’re doing ok?”

I don’t answer him. I know I’m not.

“I know that you’re mad at me, Sabrina. And I understand. But there are only a few people who know about Will and Barb and everything else that happened last year. And even though I wish I wasn’t, I’m one of those people.”

“So?”

“So, your options on who you can talk to about this are limited.”

“I can talk to Jonathan,” I argue.

“Do you?”

Not that I’m going to admit it, but I don’t. Jonathan worries about Will enough, I don’t want to bother him with my problems. Compared to what Will went through, I know I’d sound like I’m just whining.

“Why don’t you talk to Nancy? I know she’s having a hard time moving on from what happened to Barb, and-”

“That’s not going to happen.”

“Sabrina-”

“Look, it doesn’t matter,” I tell him. “None of it does. I don’t need to talk to anyone, ok? Besides, it’s not your problem.” I don’t wait for a response before walking off.

When I walk into the darkroom, I mumble, “I hate my life.”

“What did you do now?” Jonathan asks, not bothering to look up from the photographs he’s flipping through.

“I just ran into Steve,” I answer as I shrug off my leather jacket. I’ve been roasting in it all morning, but it’s better than having everyone stare at the scars on my arm. “Literally.”

He looks at me. “How did that go?” Jonathan knows that I can’t stand Steve. He doesn’t know why, but he knows that I do everything I can to avoid Steve.

“Not as badly as it could have,” I admit.

“Why do you hate him so much anyway? Are you seriously that mad about that photoshoot comment he made?”

“I think you know better than anyone what an asshole he is.” Then, before Jonathan can ask any more questions, I say, “Can we just focus on the project, please?”

“I was here ten minutes ago,” He tells me. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

“Trust me, I would have rather been here than talking to Steve in the cafeteria.”

Even as Jonathan and I work on our project for photography, I can’t get my conversation with Steve out of my head. Mainly, I can’t stop thinking about the fact that he’s right about me needing to talk to someone. The problem is, I don’t have anyone to talk to. Jonathan is my only friend, and even though I know that I _could_ talk to him, I won’t. Like I said earlier, he has enough to worry about with Will.

The real problem is, for the past year, I’ve been alone. I’ve always done better by myself, but if I needed someone, I used to have my dad. But now I have no one. And for the first time in my life, I’m starting to wish that I had someone, anyone, to talk to.


	3. Chapter 3

I go straight home after school. Tuesday is one of my days off from work, and I need every second of relaxation that I can get. I pull my car into the garage and get the mail from the mailbox before going inside.

It’s quiet when I go inside. It always is, but it’s still unsettling. At my mom’s house, I craved the quiet. The quiet meant that my mom wasn’t around. But this is my dad’s house. And even though he’s been gone for nearly a year, I’m still not used to his house being quiet.

It’s weird to wake up and not hear him singing in the kitchen. It’s weird to come home from school and not hear the radio he’d forgotten to turn off before he left for work. It’s weird to go to bed and not hear my dad watching the news in the living room.

I turn on the radio. It’s a commercial, but it’s better than silence. Anything is better than silence. I sit down on the couch and start going through the mail. There’s a letter from my mom. I sit there, staring at the envelope. This one’s return address is an apartment in Seattle. The last one had been from an apartment in Cincinnati. The one before that had been from Miami, and the one before that was from Las Vegas. My mom has sent me sixteen letters in the past ten months and every letter had come from a different city.

When the first letter came from Dallas, I was surprised to see that it was full of apologies. My mom said that she was sorry for being a bad mom, she was working on getting her life together, and that she hoped I’d be able to forgive her someday. At the time, I thought that maybe I’d be willing to forgive her someday, even if I wasn’t ready then. Whatever forgiving feelings I might have had disappeared, though, when the next letter she’d sent from Salt Lake City was her asking why I refused to forgive her and blaming me for ruining her life.

I stopped reading her letters after I got the fifth one blaming me for all her problems.

I stare at the unopened envelope in my hands for a moment before putting it on the coffee table. I’ll throw it away the next time I get up.

A few hours later, I’m doing my homework in my bedroom when the doorbell rings. Happy for the distraction, I get up and answer the door. Hopper is standing on the porch. “Hey, Hop,” I say. “What’s going on?”

“I just came by to check up on you.”

Something’s up. Hopper comes around to check on me every couple of weeks, but it’s only been a couple of days since the last time he was here. “Is everything ok?” I ask carefully.

“I heard about you pulling a blade on that kid. His parents came to me about pressing charges.”

“But I wasn’t trying to hurt him. I thought he was the Demogorgon.” I know that’s not an excuse, though. I know that isn’t going to get me out of this.

“I think I talked them out of it,” Hopper tells me. “I explained that you were going through some things with the anniversary of your dad’s death being next week. They seemed to be understanding of the situation.”

Eight days. Eight days until the anniversary of my dad’s death. “My dad’s suicide,” I mutter, rolling my eyes. “Of course that would make me crazy. Everyone around here thinks that crazy runs in the family.” My family, in particular.

"At least you know the truth,” Hopper reminds me. “That was what you wanted last year, wasn't it? To find out the truth?”

"Yeah, I guess." Hopper is looking at his watch and I ask, "Are you late for something?"

"Actually, I am."

"Then go. I'm ok."

"Are you sure?"

I nod. "Yeah. Go on. I'll be fine."

"All right. You take care of yourself, kid."

“You too. Thanks for getting me out of trouble, by the way."

“Just don’t get into anymore,” He says as he walks down the driveway.

I know I need to pull myself together. One of the conditions the judge gave me last year when he signed my emancipation papers was that I have to stay out of legal trouble. Every time I’ve gotten in trouble in the past year, it’s been because I was being paranoid about what happened last November. I close the front door and lean against it as I quietly tell myself, “It’s over. And it’s never going to happen again.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, I know this is a short chapter, and I'm sorry. In case you guys haven't noticed, I have trouble figuring out how to break up my chapters sometimes. I usually end up with chapters that are way too short or way too long.
> 
> Also, I just wanted to say that I realize this story has been kind of depressing so far, and I'm sorry for that. But Sabrina went through a lot in the first story, she's not in a good place, and I don't want to sugarcoat that. But I can promise that this isn't going to be a depressing story and that things will get better for her.


	4. Chapter 4

_October 31, 1984_

“You feel like going to a party tonight?”

It’s fourth period, and Jonathan and I are spending our photography class sitting in the bleachers by the football field. I don’t feel like doing any work today, and luckily, he didn’t argue too much about it.

“You do?” I ask in disbelief.

“Nancy asked me if I was going.”

“So, why are you punishing me?”

“Because if I’m going to a party where I’m going to be surrounded by people I can’t stand, I don’t want to go alone. Besides, it not like either of us have plans.”

“Well, I was going to watch The Great Pumpkin. It’s going to be my seventeenth Halloween in a row.” I shrug as I admit, “Going to a party does sound better, though. At least at a party I’d have an excuse to get drunk.”

“I’ve never seen you drink.”

“I don’t very often. It almost never ends well. But if I’m going to this thing, then I’m going to get drunk.”

“I can drive you. I’m dropping Will off at the Wheeler’s at seven. I’ll pick you up after.”

I look at Jonathan. “Are we seriously going to do this?” Neither of us are the party-type, and I’m half-expecting him to tell me that he’s kidding.

“It’s just a party,” He says with a shrug. “How bad can it be?”

I sigh. “Fine. Pick me up at seven.”

The doorbell rings a few minutes after seven. Jonathan and I are both wearing the same clothes we wore to school. “What are you supposed to be?” I ask drily.

“I haven’t decided yet. You?”

“I’m the girl who only showed up to get free beer.”

“Not bad.” As we get in the car, he tells me, “I have to get Will at nine, So, if you want a ride home, I’m leaving at eight forty-five.”

“By eight forty-five, I’ll be more than ready to leave.” Then, remembering the conversation I had with Will on Monday night, I ask, “So, how’s Will doing?”

“I don’t know. I heard him telling my mom that he had another… episode, I guess. At the arcade on Monday night.”

“He had the episode on Monday night?”

“Yeah.”

I don’t say anything. Monday night is when Will asked me what it’s like when _I_ have one of _my_ episodes.

Jonathan goes on, “He went to Hawkins Lab yesterday to see that doctor again. The doctor said it’s probably because the anniversary of the whole thing is coming up.”

“I can’t believe it’s been that long,” I say quietly. Hopefully tonight I can stop thinking about it. Even if it’s only for a couple of hours.

When Jonathan and I walk into the party, I look at him and say, “Have fun.” I don’t wait for a response before disappearing into the crowd. I’m ready to get drunk and hopefully forget about my life for a few hours.

Half an hour and three trips to the keg later, I run into Nancy. Literally. Running into people I’m trying to avoid seems to be a habit of mine lately. “Sorry,” I mumble.

Before I can walk past her, she grabs my arm and asks, “Did I do something to you? Last year?”

So, she doesn’t know about what happened with Steve. Unless she’s playing dumb, but I don’t think that’s the case.

All I say is, “No.”

“Then what’s going on?”

“What are you talking about?”

“I thought we were friends,” She tells me. “But then after everything was over, you just disappeared. You and Jonathan both.”

“I don’t know what to tell you about Jonathan, but trust me, I’m the last person you want to be friends with. I’m a horrible friend.”

Nancy lets go of my arm as she quietly says, “I know last year was hard for you, but you can’t just shut everyone out.”

The alcohol is starting to take over, and I tell her, “You have no idea how hard last year was for me. None. My dad died. I had to go to court and tell a judge how horrible my mom was. I had to beg him to let me cut my mom out of my life. And you know what? My mom didn’t want me. At all. She didn’t even bother showing up.”

“I lost someone too. I know what it’s like.”

I don’t say anything. Obviously I know that Barb was taken by the Demogorgon. But I’ve never really thought about the possibility that it’s still affecting Nancy.

She goes on, “And I didn’t know about your mom. You could have talked to me about this stuff, Sabrina.”

“I can’t.”

“Why not?”

That’s a dangerous question, and I’m drunk and in the mood to answer it. But before I can, Steve comes over. “Why don’t you ask him?” I suggest to Nancy before walking off.

Even though I know that I was just unnecessarily mean, I’m too drunk for it to occur to me that what I just did is worse than being mean. I don’t think about the possibility that what I just said is probably going to have consequences.


	5. Chapter 5

I’m not sure how much time has passed since my conversation with Nancy when Jonathan finds me in the backyard. More specifically, I’m in line at the keg. At this point, I’m pretty sure he knows this is the best place to find me. I’ve had more than a few trips to the keg tonight.

“What’s up?” I say when I see him walking over.

“I’m leaving now, so if you want a ride, let’s go.”

I look at my watch. “But it’s not eight forty-five yet.”

“I’m taking Nancy home.”

“What? Why?”

“She’s completely wasted, and Steve just left her here.”

“That doesn’t surprise me,” I mutter. I feel bad for Nancy for having such a terrible boyfriend. But then I remember my conversation with her, and I ask, “They didn’t break up, did they?” I was mad when I talked to her, but destroying a relationship definitely wasn’t my intention.

“I don’t know. Are you coming?”

I’m not sure if Nancy and I being in the same car right now is a good idea, so I say, “Don’t worry about me. I’ll figure something out.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I don’t say anything when he leaves. I’m too busy hoping that I didn’t just cause a break-up.

A couple of hours later, I decide that I’m ready to go home. I’m leaving when I see the new guy getting in his car. I’m pretty sure I know his name, but I can’t remember it. I can barely remember my own right now. Still, I need a way to get home, so I walk over to him and ask, “Could you give me a ride home?” He looks at me and I go on, “I know it’s kind of a weird question considering this is the first time we’ve talked to each other, but I’m desperate. And I can pay you.”

“How are you going to do that?” He asks with a smirk.

I roll my eyes, already regretting asking him. “With money.”

“You don’t need to pay me,” He says after a moment. “Come on.”

As I get in the car, I tell him, “I’m Sabrina, by the way.”

“I’m Billy. So, how do I get to your place?”

Other than me giving directions, the only sound in the car is the radio quietly playing AC/DC. I’m leaning with my head against the window. The glass is cold, and it helps with the headache that’s already coming on. I’m dreading the hangover that I know I’m going to wake up with tomorrow morning.

When the song ends, Billy asks me, “How come you didn’t go home with your boyfriend?”

I look at him. “What are you talking about?”

“I was standing behind you at the keg when you told your boyfriend to go home without you.”

“Jonathan isn’t my boyfriend.”

“That still doesn’t answer my question.”

I roll my eyes. “Why do you care?”

“I’m just curious.”

“Well, if you were standing behind me, then you know that he was taking Nancy Wheeler home.”

“So?”

I must be more drunk than I realize, because before I can stop myself, I start telling Billy about what happened with Steve last year. When I’m done telling him everything, I add, “By the way, if you could do me a favor and not repeat this to anyone, that’d be great.”

“I won’t. But I have to ask, is that why you hit him?”

“You heard about that?”

He nods.

“Well, that was an unrelated incident,” I tell him. “And don’t be too impressed. I don’t think I did any damage. Like, at all. I broke my own hand, though.”

“I don’t know how that guy doesn’t get hit more often.”

“Me neither.” Then, for some reason, I add, “But I have to admit, from what I’ve seen, he’s not as bad as he was last year.” Billy stops in front of my house, and I say, “Thanks for the ride. How much-”

“I told you, you don’t owe me anything.”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously.” Billy shrugs. “I guess I felt like doing something nice.”

I try to ignore the fact that it never ends well when someone tells me they’re just trying to be nice. “Well, thanks. I’m sorry for spending half the drive whining about my problems.”

“Don’t worry about it. It was more interesting than just sitting in silence.”

I laugh. “I’m glad I could provide some entertainment.” I get out of the car and say, “I’ll see you around.” As I go inside, I try to ignore the fact that I’m probably going to have a lot of apologizing to do tomorrow.


	6. Chapter 6

_November 1, 1984_

When I wake up on Thursday morning, my hangover is bad enough to make me consider staying home. But I’m not supposed to miss school. It’s another one of the terms the judge gave me when he signed my emancipation papers. And somehow I don’t think that telling him I missed school because I was hungover is a good idea.

After second period, I’m walking out of the gym when Steve stops me. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“How much time do you have?” I ask drily.

“Sabrina,” He snaps.

I sigh. I know I messed up last night. “I’m sorry.” I pause, not sure how to ask my question.

Steve apparently knows what I’m wondering anyway, because he says, “I told her.”

The moment Jonathan told me that Steve left Nancy at the party last night, I knew that Steve probably told Nancy about what happened. But the fact that it’s a reality now makes me even more nervous than I was a second ago. It takes me a moment to ask, “How- How did that go?”

“Horribly. Both times.”

I repeat, “Both times?” What the hell is he talking about?

“I had to tell her twice. She was too drunk to remember me telling her last night, so I had to tell her again a few minutes ago.”

“Why would you do that?”

“What else was I supposed to do?”

My response is, "You're an idiot."

"You're the one who told her to ask me."

"I was drunk.”

“I’m getting really tired of hearing that excuse today,” Steve mutters.

I don’t know what he means, but I don’t bother asking. Instead I tell him, “I don’t mean that you're an idiot for telling her last night. I mean that you're an idiot for telling her a second time this morning."

"She didn't remember."

“Right. You had the perfect chance to pretend that everything is fine.”

"Maybe you're ok with keeping secrets from people, but I'm not."

I know that telling her was the right thing to do, but I’m not about to admit that. "Don’t act like you're better than me," I say sharply. "You only told her because you had to. And I feel bad, ok? I seriously do. I feel terrible.”

“Yeah, well, you feeling bad isn’t going to fix this.”

“I know. I don’t know what you want me to do.”

“I don’t want you to do anything. You’ve done enough.”

Even though I shouldn’t be surprised, I can’t believe how much of a hypocrite Steve is being right now. “I’m not the only one to blame here,” I remind him. I shrug as I add, “I mean, you deciding to cheat on your girlfriend is probably where this whole problem began.”

Steve doesn’t say anything as he glares at me.

I go on, “And considering that you lied to me to make it happen, I’d say it’s almost entirely your fault.”

“If Nancy breaks up with me because of this, I’m blaming you,” Steve tells me before walking off.

I spend all of third period trying to ignore the fact that Nancy is sitting a few rows behind me. When the bell rings at the end of class, I try to get out of there quickly, but Nancy catches up to me in the hallway and asks, “Can I talk to you?”

Surprisingly, she doesn’t seem mad. But I still hesitate before saying, “Sure.”

“Why did you do it? I mean, you don’t even like him. You can’t stand him.”

“I was having the worst week of my life, and I have a terrible way of dealing with my problems. Steve happened to be there. I didn’t care who it was.” I shrug as I add, “And I know that doesn’t make it better. Also, he told me you guys broke up. If I knew that he was lying, I never would have done anything with him. I’m sorry. Honestly. I am so sorry.”

“I’m not mad at you,” Nancy tells me. “I know that he lied to you.” She pauses before saying, “You asked me about the breakup the next morning, and I was stupid enough to think that it didn’t mean anything. I mean, I saw the look on your face when I told you that Steve and I were still together. I should have known something was going on.”

I can’t help asking, “Why aren’t you mad at me? Yeah, he lied to me, but I still never said anything afterward.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I was going to,” I say honestly. “When I realized that he lied, I planned on telling you once everything was over. But then I ended up in the hospital, so I decided that I’d tell you once I went back to school.”

"Then you didn't come back until January.”

I nod. She doesn’t ask why I missed so much school, and I’m glad. I never know what to tell people when they ask that. I certainly don’t want to tell them the truth. I don’t want to tell them that I was too much of a mess to leave the house, let alone come to school.

“I don’t blame you for any of it,” Nancy tells me. “And even if I did, I honestly don’t think that I love him enough to care.”

I don’t know how to respond to that. After a moment, say, “I’m sorry. For everything.” I don’t wait for a response before walking off.

I can’t find Jonathan, so I spend my lunch in the darkroom. I leave a few minutes before the bell for fourth period rings so I can get some stuff from my locker. I’m going through my locker when someone behind me asks, “How’s the hangover?”

I turn around and see Billy walking toward me. “It sucks,” I tell him. “I’m never drinking like that again.”

“You seemed pretty drunk.”

“I know. By the way, thank you for being so nice to me last night. And for listening to me. I know that I was kind of a mess.”

Billy shrugs. “We’ve all been there.”

I know that too well. It’s why I don’t like to drink very often. “Well, thanks,” I say again. “Seriously.”

He stares at me for a moment before saying, "So, it seems like Harrington and his girlfriend are having problems."

I don't respond as I pretend to look through my locker. I don't want to have to admit that those problems are at least partially my fault.

"What are you going to do if they break up?"

I look at Billy. "Why would I do anything?"

"I figured that since you're into him-

"What?" I laugh. "I'm not into him."

"Ok."

It’s obvious that Billy doesn’t believe me, and I ask him, "Why would you think that?"

"From the things you were saying last night, it sounded like you are."

“Well, I’m not.” I close my locker. “And I have to get to class.” Call me crazy, but I don’t feel like standing around and arguing with someone who barely knows me about my feelings for someone else.

When I get to fourth period, Jonathan isn’t there. And when the bell rings, he still hasn’t shown up.

“He left,” The girl who sits behind us tells me.

I look at her. “What?”

“Jonathan. I saw him leaving at lunch with Nancy Wheeler.”

“Seriously?”

She nods. “Seriously. Weird, huh? I didn’t know they were friends.”

I don’t say anything. Today just keeps getting weirder and weirder.


	7. Chapter 7

_November 3, 1984_

If I thought that Thursday was weird, Friday was even weirder. Jonathan didn’t show up at all, and neither did Nancy. Besides that, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about my conversation with Billy on Thursday. I don't remember exactly what I said to him on Halloween night, although yesterday I was tempted to find him and ask.

Saturday doesn’t start off much better, and I’ve only been at work for a few minutes when Lucas finds me and says, “I need your help with something.”

“Ok,” I say slowly. “With what?”

“There’s a girl who hangs out here a lot, and I need to talk to her. Alone.”

“How am I supposed to help with that?”

“Well, she’s always playing Dig Dug, so I was thinking that you could pretend that it’s shut down and that you have another one running in the back. And when you bring her back there, I’ll be waiting.”

“I’m not gonna lie, that sounds kind of creepy.” When he rolls his eyes, I add, “I’m kidding. Mostly.”

“Are you going to help me, or not?”

“Yeah, fine. How do I know when it’s her?”

“She has red hair and she usually has her skateboard with her.”

“That’s kind of vague, but I think I can work with it.” I let Lucas into the back room and tell him, “By the way, if Keith finds you in here, it would be great if you didn’t tell him that I let you in.”

“Well, what should I tell him?”

“I’ll let you figure that out.” Then I go put an out of order sign on the Dig Dug machine and wait until I see a redheaded girl with skateboard walking over to it.

When I approach her, she asks me, “What happened?”

“A short-circuit,” I tell her. “We have another one set up in the back right now, though.”

“Ok.” She follows me into the back. When I open the door and she sees Lucas, she angrily asks, “Lucas?” As I close the door, I hear her asking, “What the hell is this, stalker?”

An hour later, she and Lucas come out of the back room. They’re arguing, although I’m too far away to hear what they’re saying. When she leaves, Lucas walks over and I say, “I take it things didn’t go well?”

He shakes his head.

“Who is she, anyway?”

“Max. You know, Mad Max? She’s new.”

“What were you guys talking about? She seemed really mad.”

“Nothing,” He says, clearly lying. “Just… DnD stuff.”

“Right.”

Before I can ask anything else, Keith calls, “Sabrina.”

“I’ll see you later,” I tell Lucas as I walk off.

Later that night, I'm making dinner when the doorbell rings. When I answer the door, Steve is standing on the front steps. "You have a strange habit of showing up at my house when I've never told you where I live," I say drily.

"Dustin thinks he found a baby Demogorgon."

I stare at him for a moment, thinking that this is some stupid joke. But when I realize that he’s serious, all I can say is, "What?" This cannot be happening. Not again.

"I need your help."

"Why me? Why not Hopper?"

"We don't know where he is."

"Why not _anyone else?”_

"We don't know where anyone is."

I can’t deal with this right now. I can’t deal with this ever.

As if reading my mind, Steve tells me, “I don’t want to drag you into this, Sabrina. I know you don't want to be a part of this again. I wouldn't be here if you weren't the only option."

"Why am I an option at all?"

"Because I need someone to go into Dustin's storm cellar with me."

"Dustin?" I suggest.

“I’m not trusting some kid to watch my back.”

“And you trust me? Are you forgetting that I hate you?”

“You won’t let me die.”

I shake my head. “I can’t do this. Trust me, you don’t want my help. I’ll be useless.”

Steve sighs. "If you don't want to help me, then do this to help Dustin."

“It’s not about who I want to help. I can’t do this.”

“Sabrina-”

I have the feeling that Steve isn’t going to go away until I agree to help him, and even though I don’t want to do this, I know that I’m not going to stop worrying about it until I know that it’s taken care of. “I’ll be outside in a few minutes,” I tell him.

“I'll be in the car."

I close the door and go into the kitchen, where I turn the stove off. I try to hold myself together, but it takes less than a minute for me to break down. I can’t go through this again, but I feel like I have no choice. I can’t back out. And like I said, I won’t be able to stop thinking about this. I need to go with Steve and Dustin. I need to know what’s going on.

I’m trying to pull myself together when I hear the front door open, and Steve calls, “Sabrina?”

I try to keep my voice steady when I answer, “In here.” He walks into the kitchen and I say, “I told you I’ll be outside in a few minutes.”

"It's been almost ten minutes."

"It has?"

"Yeah." He studies my face for a moment before asking, "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine," I lie.

"Look, if you don't want to do this-"

"I have to.”

"No. I shouldn't have tried to guilt you into helping."

"It's not that. I have to know for sure what's going on."

"It's probably nothing," Steve tells me. "It's probably just some lizard or something that he's freaking out about."

I don't believe that, and I know Steve doesn't either. "I have to see for myself." I push myself off the counter. "Let's go."

When Steve pulls into Dustin’s driveway, Dustin tells us, “He’s in the cellar. I didn’t know what else to do.”

We get out of the car and Steve opens the trunk. He pulls out a baseball bat with nails, then Dustin leads us through the back gate and toward the back of the yard, where the storm cellar is.

The three of us stand above the doors in silence for a moment before I quietly say, “I don’t hear anything.”

“He’s in there,” Dustin insists.

Steve hits the doors with his bat, but nothing happens. He turns to Dustin, shining his flashlight in Dustin’s face. “Listen, kid, if this is some sort of Halloween prank-”

“It’s not.”

I don’t mention that it would be a bit late for a Halloween prank, considering it’s now November third.

Once Steve decides that Dustin isn’t making this up, he asks, “So, do you have a key for this thing?”

“I hid it in my room,” Dustin says. “Just in case my mom tried to go down there. I’ll go get it.”

Dustin starts walking toward the house, and I grab my switchblade from my back pocket.

“Where did you get a switchblade?” Steve asks me.

“My dad bought it for me when I was nine. I thought it looked cool.”

“And you carry it everywhere with you?”

“Since last year.”

“Why?”

“In case of a situation like this.”

Dustin comes back with the key and kneels down to unlock the padlock.

I let out a shaky breath. I don’t want to do this. I’d rather be doing anything else right now.

Steve looks at me. “Do you want to wait in the car?”

“I feel like I should be insulted by that question.”

“I shouldn’t have made you come here.”

“You didn’t, it was my choice.” It’s a choice I’m wishing I didn’t make, but it’s too late to back out now.

“Just stay behind me, ok?”

“Ok.”

“All right.” Dustin stands up. “I’ll wait up here,” He says slowly. “You know, just in case he tries to escape.”

Despite how absolutely terrified I am right now, I can’t keep the sarcasm out of my voice when I say, “Great.”

“Are you ready?” Steve asks me.

I nod.

He opens the doors and says, “Don’t come down until I tell you to.” He’s halfway down the steps when he tells me to come down. Once I’m standing next to him, he says, “Stay here.” Then he goes down into the cellar.

It’s quiet. Too quiet. There’s not a single sound. Certainly not from a Demogorgon.

After waiting for a minute, I say, “Steve?”

“Come here.”

I walk down the stairs, where he’s standing at the bottom. “What’s wrong?”

“That.” He points at a hole in the wall. It’s near the bottom, on the floor, and the opening is covered in some sort of slime.

The same kind of slime that was covering the portal Nancy and I went through into the Upside Down last year.

“No,” I mutter.

We both walk over to the hole. There’s something on the ground and Steve uses the end of his bat to pick it up. “What is this?”

I stare at it. “I think it’s skin,” I say slowly.

“Steve?” Dustin calls. “Sabrina?”

“Get down here,” Steve tells him.

I’m staring at the hole in the wall. This can’t be happening. This has to be a dream. A really bad dream.

“Shit,” Dustin mutters when he comes up next to me.

“Any chance this was like that before?” I ask him.

He shakes his head.

The three of us get down at the ground, looking into the hole. Whatever Dustin found, it tunneled its way out of the cellar.

Steve sighs. “Well, this isn’t good.”


	8. Chapter 8

Half an hour later, Dustin, Steve, and I are in Dustin’s kitchen, coming up with a plan for tomorrow to find the baby Demogorgon, which Dustin told us he’d named Dart.

I don’t want to wait until tomorrow. I don’t know how I’m going to sleep tonight knowing that Dart is loose in Hawkins. But Steve and Dustin keep saying that it’s too dangerous to hunt for Dart right now, and I know that they’re right.

Dustin’s mom comes home and asks, “Dusty, whose car is in the driveway?” She stops when she walks into the kitchen and sees Steve and me. “Oh, who are your friends?”

“Mom, this is Steve and Sabrina. They’re from the high school’s A.V. club.”

Steve and I look at each other. Neither of us know anything about A.V. club.

Dustin goes on, “The high schoolers and the middle schoolers are doing a big A.V. project together tomorrow, and we’re all working on our part tonight.”

“Well, it’s nice to meet you two,” Dustin’s mom says to Steve and me. She tells Dustin, “I’m going to bed. I spent all day looking for Mews, but I didn’t find her.”

“Don’t worry,” Dustin says. “We’re going to find her.”

They’re not going to find Mews, though, and I feel bad for not telling Dustin’s mom the truth. Dustin’s mom goes down the hall, and when I hear a door close, I quietly tell Dustin, “You have to tell your mom what happened to Mews.”

"You want me to tell my mom that a baby Demogorgon ate our cat?"

“Of course not! Tell her it was a dog or something.”

“Look, I’ll figure out what to tell her later. But for now, can we please focus on how we’re going to find Dart?”

“And what we do when we find him,” Steve adds.

“When we find him, we kill him,” I say.

“You say that like it’s easy.”

“I know it’s not going to be easy, but it’s our only option.”

“He’s gotten bigger,” Dustin reminds us.

At least, that’s if we’re right about that stuff in the cellar being Dart’s skin after he molted for what Dustin said would be the third time.

“Well, I’ve fought a grown one before,” Steve says. “So, I think we’ll be ok.”

“Well, we don’t really know that it was grown,” I say slowly. “We have no idea how big Dart is going to get, or how fast it’s going to happen.”

Steve sighs. “We’re not looking for him tonight. It’s not safe. Besides, we still haven’t figured out what we’re going to do when we find him.”

I glare at him. “I wasn’t trying to say that we should look for him tonight. I’m just saying that we don’t really know what to expect when we find him. I mean, aside from the part where we’ll kill him.”

“And we don’t know how we’re going to do that.”

“What about your bat?” Dustin asks him.

“I don’t know if it’s going to be enough.”

Suddenly, I remember the plan Nancy and Jonathan came up with when we were hunting the Demogorgon last year. “We could try burning him,” I suggest.

“It’s not a bad idea,” Dustin says. “Demogorgons don’t like fire. Dart didn’t even like the heat lamp.”

“It’s a good idea,” Steve agrees. “But we can’t just set a Demogorgon on fire wherever we find it. That would draw a lot of attention.”

He’s right, and I explain, “Last year the plan was to get the Demogorgon to come to us.”

“It did. I was there for it.”

“So, we need to find a way to lure Dart somewhere,” Dustin says.

So, we start coming up with a plan to do that.

"Are you awake?" I ask.

It's almost midnight, and Steve and I are laying on Dustin's living room floor. The three of us spent hours going over a plan to find Dart, and we’re going to get started on it first thing tomorrow. But I don’t know if I’m going to be able to sleep knowing what could happen tomorrow.

It takes a minute before Steve says, "Yeah, I'm awake."

I turn to look at him. “I don’t know about you, but today didn’t go the way I thought it would.”

“Trust me, this wasn't how I planned on my day going either.”

I can’t help muttering, “And it doesn’t sound like tomorrow’s going to be much better, either.”

“You know, it’s not too late for you to change your mind. No one’s going to judge you If you back of out this.”

I shake my head. “I’m not backing out.”

“Well, before we go hunting for this thing tomorrow, I want to tell you that I’m really sorry about what happened last year.

I don't say anything. Just like every other time I’ve heard Steve apologize, it’s weird.

"You know, the night I drove you home?"

I laugh flatly. As if I needed clarification. "I know what you meant." Then I admit, "I'm not mad at you anymore."

"Really?"

"Really. Now that Nancy knows what happened, I feel a lot less guilty about it.” The guilt is still there, but it’s not nearly as bad. I shrug as I tell him, “I guess the lack of guilt makes me hate you less. But I think we should try to get along. At least until this thing is over.”

“Why?”

“We have to work together right now, so I think it’s in everyone’s best interest if we play nice.”

“And what about afterward?” Steve asks. “You’re just going to go back to hating me?”

I shrug. “We’ll see how this goes.”


	9. Chapter 9

_November 4, 1984_

We leave the Henderson house early and go to the grocery store. We’re planning on buying a bunch of raw meat to try to get Dart to follow us to the junkyard, where we’re going to set up a trap for him.

Steve and I go into the store and Dustin stays in the car, still trying to get through to anyone on the walkie-talkie.

“Do you think we should be worried that he can’t reach anyone else?” I ask Steve as we walk into the store.

"Do you ever focus on just one problem at a time?"

"No, but I wish I could. It sounds nice."

"I could still take you home," Steve tells me. "I could drop you off before Dustin and I go do this."

"Are you seriously that desperate to get rid of me?"

"It’s not that.” He seems to hesitate before going on, “But it's obvious that what happened with all this stuff last year... affected you."

"It did, which is why I'm here right now. I want to make sure we get this taken care of." I shrug as I add, "Besides, it would really suck of me to leave you guys to deal with this by yourselves."

"Like I said last night, no one would judge you if you did."

"I would. So, you guys are stuck with me."

"Being stuck with you hasn't been that bad.”

"You haven't been that bad either," I admit. "You're nicer than I remember."

At the meat counter, Steve and I buy five pounds of raw meat. We don’t know how much we’re going to need for this, but I’m hoping that five pounds will be enough.

“It’s gonna take a few minutes,” The guy at the counter tells us.

“That’s fine,” I say. “We’ll wait.”

He stares at us and asks, “What do you kids need all this for, anyway?”

“We’re doing a science project,” I answer.

While we’re waiting, Steve says, "So, you and Hargrove."

I look at him. "Do you have a question, or are you just randomly naming people that go to our school?"

"Do you like him?"

"That's none of your business."

"It's not like I'm going to tell him what you say."

“Fine,” I say with a sigh. "No, I don't like him. Why are you asking?”

“I heard he drove you home from the party.”

“So, given what happened with us last year, you assumed that I slept with him?”

He just shrugs.

I roll my eyes. “Well, nothing like that happened. Nothing is going to, either. I figure at least one of the guys I do something with should be someone I’m actually dating.”

“You say that like there’s been more than one guy.”

“I feel like I should be offended by that, but there has been.”

“There was someone after me?” Steve asks.

“Again, not that it’s any of your business, but there was someone _before_ you.”

“Seriously?”

“Don’t sound so surprised,” I say flatly.

“Who was it?”

I just give him a look.

“Right. Not my business.”

I figure there’s no harm in telling him, so I say, “Right before school started last year, my mom’s boyfriend-of-the-month had his son visit for a few weeks. But since my mom and her boyfriends spend all their time in bars, I was expected to entertain the son.” I pause before admitting, “I was shocked, but I actually liked him. He was cute and nice, and he liked me. So, we had our fun for a few weeks. Then he went back to his mom’s.”

“That was it? You just… ended things?”

"You're surprised that I don't get easily attached to people?"

“I guess not. But you guys weren’t worried about your parents getting married or anything like that?”

I laugh flatly. "If you knew my mom, then you'd understand why that wasn't a concern of mine." I shrug as I add, “I really liked him, but not enough to bother trying to keep up with a long-distance thing. I’m not completely heartless, though. I still have his number.” I don’t mention that he told me to call him if I ever needed anything and that I’ve almost called him a few times in the past year. Just so I could talk to someone about what happened last November. But I know I wouldn’t be able to tell him anything. I’m quiet for a moment before telling Steve, “You were right the other day.”

“About what?”

“There are only a few people I can talk to about last year. And it sucks.”

The guy comes back with our meat, then, and we go to the cash register to pay. We’re on our way to the cash register when I grab a few pairs of dish gloves off the shelf we’re passing.

“What are those for?”

“You don’t want to be touching all of that with your bare hands, do you?”

His answer is, “Good point.”

We drive to the train tracks just outside of town and get out of the car. The three of us get out of the car and Steve opens the trunk. He and I are putting the meat into a metal bucket we found at Dustin’s house when a voice comes through Dustin’s walkie-talkie.

It’s Lucas.

Dustin walks off, and I hear him saying, “Well, while you were having sister problems, Dart grew again.”

“What?” Lucas cries.

“I’ll explain later. I’m with Sabrina and Steve. Meet us at the junkyard.”

“Steve?” Lucas asks in disbelief. “Steve Harrington?”

Steve looks at me and says, “I’m kind of offended that he sounds so surprised.”

“Now you know how I felt during our conversation earlier,” I reply lightly. In Lucas’s defense, Steve is the last person I would have expected Dustin to go to for help, too. But for now, the three of us only have each other for help. “Dustin,” I call. “Come on.”

After over an hour of walking and leaving a trail of raw meat for Dart, we make it to the junkyard.

I’m way ahead of Steve and Dustin, who are two of the slowest walkers ever. I’m surveying the junkyard when they finally catch up to me.

“What do you guys think?” Dustin asks.

“This will work.” I glance at Steve. “Won’t it?”

He nods. “This will do just fine.” He looks at Dustin. “Good call, man.”

We’re going over the plan again when someone shouts, “I said medium-well!”

When we turn around, Lucas is walking toward us with that girl from the arcade yesterday. Max.

I look at Lucas as I ask, “I’m guessing you weren’t talking to her about DnD yesterday?”

He shrugs, but he doesn’t deny anything.

Bringing this girl into everything is dangerous, but we don’t have time to worry about that right now.

Max and I help Steve gather big sheets of metal to board up the bus while Dustin and Lucas argue behind an old car.

After a few minutes of this, Steve goes over to them and slams his hands down on the hood of the car. “Hey, dickheads,” He says sharply. “How come the only ones helping me are Sabrina and this random girl? We lose daylight in forty minutes, let’s go!”

I laugh as he walks back over.

“What?”

“I just didn’t know you were so good with kids,” I say drily.

Before we all lock ourselves in the bus, Steve and I check the bus one last time to make sure everything is secure.

“It’s too bad Eleven isn’t here,” I say quietly. “We barely made it out of that middle school alive, and she’s the only reason we did.”

Steve looks at me. “Eleven?”

I nod.

“You’re talking about a person?” He asks slowly.

I nod again. “Yeah. El.”

“I don’t know who that is.”

“No one told you about El?”

“No,” Steve says slowly. He’s looking at me like I’m crazy.

I tell him, “I’m not crazy.”

“I didn’t say you are.”

“You’re looking at me like I am, though. Eleven was real. She was a kid who grew up in the Lab.”

“The lab the Demogorgon came from?”

“The lab where the Gate to the Upside Down was opened by Eleven. She had psychic powers.” I shrug. “Apparently you’re the only one who doesn’t know about her.”

“And she’s the one who got rid of the Demogorgon?”

“After you fought off the Demogorgon at the Byers house, it found us at the middle school right after the people from Hawkins Lab did. Eleven destroyed it somehow, but when it disappeared, she did too.” I only knew her for a few hours, but I still think about her a lot. I’m sorry that I didn’t get to say goodbye before she sacrificed herself to save all of us. I quietly add, “That’s what I heard, anyway. I wasn’t awake for that part. I was too busy bleeding out.”

Steve is looking at my right arm. I took my jacket off a while ago, and I’m wearing short sleeves. The scars on my arm are on full display.

“That’s when you got those?” He asks.

“When the Demogorgon attacked.” Now it’s all happening again. And that's the thought that makes me finally break down. I take a shaky breath as I finally admit, “I really don’t want to do this.”

“I know. I’m sorry I dragged you into this, but we’re going to be ok,” Steve tells me. “I promise.”

“You have no idea if that’s true.”

“It’s going to be ok, Sabrina. I’m not going to let anything happen to you or those kids.”

“What if something happens to you?”

“I know you weren’t there to see it, but I held my own against the Demogorgon pretty well.”

“Well, let’s just hope Dart hasn’t gotten that big yet,” I mutter.

“That would make things easier,” Steve agrees. He watches me for a moment before asking, “Are you good?”

Not really. But… “I don’t have a choice, do I?”

“I know I’m asking a lot, but I need you to trust me, Sabrina. I promise that we are all going to get out of this alive.”

There’s no way he can guarantee that, but I still say, “Ok.”

“Ok?”

I nod. “Let’s get this over with.”


	10. Chapter 10

We’ve been sitting in the bus for a while, and I’m actually starting to get bored when we finally hear something outside.

Steve, Dustin, and I immediately look out the uncovered window.

The darkness makes it hard to see anything and the fog certainly doesn’t help.

“Lucas,” Dustin calls. “What’s going on?”

“Hold on,” Lucas says from his spot on the roof. After a moment, he shouts, “I’ve got eyes! Ten o’clock!”

To the left of the bus, there’s a smaller version of the Demogorgon walking on four legs.

“Oh god.” I close my eyes. _This is not happening. This is not happening. This is not happening._ But when I open my eyes again, the baby Demogorgon is still there, looking at the pile of meat a few feet in front of it.

But it isn’t going any closer.

“Why isn’t he taking the bait?” Steve asks.

“Maybe he’s not hungry,” Dustin answers.

“Or maybe he’s sick of cow,” Steve mutters, turning toward the door of the bus.

I look at him. “What are you doing?”

He hands me his lighter. “Just get ready, ok?”

“Wait. Ready? What are you-”

Before I can finish my question, Steve is outside, holding his bat in front of him as he walks toward Dart.

I feel like it makes this whole thing even worse. He can’t go out there alone.

“What is he doing?” Max asks, coming down the ladder.

“He’s expanding the menu,” Dustin answers.

I pull my switchblade out of my pocket and stare at it. It’s a seven-inch blade, but it’s still nowhere near enough to go against Dart. I start searching the bus for anything that can be used as a weapon.

Max asks, “Is he insane?”

“He’s awesome,” Dustin replies.

Suddenly, Lucas starts shouting, “Steve! Watch out!”

I hear Steve yell back, “I’m a little busy here!”

“Three o’clock! Three o’clock!”

Then Dustin says, “Shit!”

“What’s going on?” I’m still looking for a weapon.

“There’s more.”

“What?” I cry. I look out the window. Three o’clock like Lucas said. There are three more Dart-sized Demogorgons. And they’re moving toward Steve.

I know that I should keep looking for a weapon, keep looking for _anything_ I can use to help, but I can’t look away from what’s happening outside. I don’t think any of us can.

The dread I feel as all three of the Demogorgons slowly walk toward Steve is indescribable. Even though I’ve said and thought a lot of bad things about him, I don’t actually want anything bad to happen to him. But I don’t see this ending well.

Dustin is at the door of the bus now, yelling, “Steve! Abort! Abort!”

Dart starts running toward Steve, who rolls over the hood of a car. The other Demogorgons jump at him and he swings the bat, hitting them both.

He runs back to the bus and the door barely closes before the Demogorgons throw themselves against it.

Steve is trying to hold the door closed as Lucas yells, “They can’t get in! They can’t!”

“They’re about to!” I shout back.

Dustin is on the walkie-talkie. “Mike! Will! God! Anyone! We are in the old junkyard and we are about to die!”

Steve brings the bat down on the arm of one of the Demogorgons that managed to swipe through the door. “Sabrina!” He shouts. “Close the door!”

The Demogorgons are starting to push through, and even though Steve and I are both trying to keep the door closed, we aren’t strong enough. They’re going to get through.

Suddenly, Max starts screaming.

When I turn toward her, I can see one of the Demogorgons on top of the bus, sticking its head through the escape hatch. “Steve!” I yell.

He turns to where I’m looking and gets up, leaving me to hold the door closed on my own. I don’t think it’s a good idea, but I don’t think it’s going to make much of a difference either way. These things are too strong and they’re going to break through no matter what we do.

“Out of the way!” Steve shoves Max behind him and holds his bat toward the Demogorgon. “You want some?”

It suddenly turns away, looking somewhere in the distance. It roars once before jumping off the bus. The ones at the door stop trying to get through, and the junkyard goes silent.

“Are they gone?” Max asks after a moment.

Steve opens the door and looks around before stepping off the bus. We all follow him and slowly look around.

“They’re all gone,” I say quietly. “They just left. I don’t understand, why would they do that?”

“Maybe they got scared?” Dustin suggests.

“No.” Steve shakes his head. “They’re going somewhere.”

We leave the junkyard and start walking back to Steve’s car. We’re all in agreement that we need to find Hopper. This is more than we can handle on our own. That became obvious the moment we realized Dart isn’t the only Demogorgon out there.

Steve and I are walking a few feet behind Dustin, Lucas, and Max. I can’t stop thinking about the way I felt when I saw the second and third Demogorgons at the junkyard. I can’t stop thinking about the way I felt when I realized that he was in danger.

…Do I like Steve?

No. That’s ridiculous. Not wanting someone to die isn’t the same thing as having feelings for them. Besides, even if I did like him, I would never be able to trust him. Not after last year.

Of course, that would be assuming that he likes me, which he doesn’t.

None of it matters, though, because I don’t like him. Not even a little. We’re just pretending to get along right now because we have to.

But I had been looking for a weapon on the bus. I had been looking for a weapon so that I could go out there and help Steve fight Dart. And as much as I try to deny it, I wouldn’t have done that for someone I didn’t care about.

I’ve been overthinking for a while when Steve asks me, “Are you ok?”

I don’t look at him when I say, “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“You haven’t said anything since we left the junkyard.”

“Well, we did almost die back there. It’s a lot to deal with.” I don’t add that I have the feeling that we still have a long night ahead of us. I can’t even begin to imagine what else we might have to deal with, but I know that I’m not looking forward to any of it.

As we walk along the tracks, Lucas asks Dustin for the hundredth time, “You’re sure that was Dart?”

“I’m positive,” Dustin insists. “He had the same yellow pattern on his butt.”

“I don’t understand,” Max says. “Dart was tiny two days ago.”

“That was before he molted,” Dustin explains.

“Wait, he malted?” Steve asks.

_“Molted,”_ I correct. “He shed his skin and got bigger.”

“Right.” Dustin nods. “He’s most likely going to be fully grown soon.”

“Then he’ll probably be hungry for more than just cats,” Steve mutters.

“Wait.” Lucas stops walking and turns to Dustin. “Dart ate a cat?” He asks in disbelief.

“No,” Dustin says quickly.

Dustin obviously doesn’t want Lucas to know that he kept Dart. Steve, however, doesn’t seem to understand that. “What are you talking about?” He asks Dustin. “He ate Mews.”

“Steve,” I say, trying to get him to shut up.

Max looks at us. “Mews? Who’s Mews?”

“Dustin’s cat,” Steve answers.

“Steve!” Dustin and I both shout.

“You kept him?” Lucas yells at Dustin.

“No!” Dustin says again.

Lucas just stares at him.

“No.” Dustin stumbles over his explanation. “No. I mean- He- He missed me. He wanted to come home.”

Dustin and Lucas start arguing, but I’m not listening. I can hear howling in the distance. I look at Steve and say, “Please tell me that sounds like a dog or a wolf, or something else that’s from this dimension.”

He doesn’t say anything, which is enough of an answer on its own.

I close my eyes and sigh. “Great.”

Steve looks at the kids, who are all screaming at each other now. “Hey, guys.”

They keep arguing.

“Guys!” He shouts.

They all turn to us as the howls start again, louder this time.

We run through the trees and come to the edge of a cliff overlooking the woods.

It’s too dark and we’re too high up for us to see anything in the woods below us, so Lucas gets his binoculars out. After a moment he says, “It’s the Lab. They're going home.”


	11. Chapter 11

When we get to Hawkins Lab, Nancy and Jonathan are there, standing outside the gate. “Steve? Sabrina?” They say as we walk out of the trees.

“Nancy?” Steve says.

“What are you guys doing here?” I ask as we walk over to them.

“We’re looking for Mike and Will,” Nancy tells us.

Dustin looks toward the Lab. “Are they in there?”

“We don’t know.”

“Why?” Jonathan asks.

Inside the Lab, the baby Demogorgons start howling again.

The Lab is dark, and Nancy and Jonathan tell us that the gate won’t open. When Dustin presses the button in the guard booth, nothing happens.

We’re all standing outside the gate, trying to figure out what to do, when the lights come back on inside. We get the gate open and Nancy and Jonathan go to see what’s going on inside, leaving Steve and me with the kids.

Steve looks at me. “Can I ask you something?”

I nod.

“Do you think Nancy and I are over?”

“I don’t think I’m the one who can answer that.” I’m certainly not about to tell him what Nancy said the other day.

“Fine,” He says after a moment. “But just tell me, did they seem close to you? Last year?”

I nod again. “They told me they didn’t do anything, though. They both told me separately.”

“Did you believe them?”

“Yes,” I say honestly.

He doesn’t respond.

“How are we going to end this?” I ask quietly. “How do we make sure we get rid of these things for good?”

“I don’t know. But trust me, I want this to be over too.”

A few minutes later, Jonathan’s car comes speeding through the gate. Hopper is right behind him and only stops long enough for all of us to get in his car.

On the way to the Byers house, we tell Hopper everything that we’ve been dealing with for the past couple of days, and Hopper tells us about everything that’s been going on with Will.

“Will is… infected by something from the Upside Down,” He tells us. “This thing is controlling him and it knows everything that he does.”

“How do we get rid of this thing?” I ask.

Hopper is quiet for a moment before saying, “We don’t know.”

At the Byers house, we’re discussing the thing inside Will when someone brings up hive-minds, and Dustin suddenly says, “Like the Mind Flayer.”

_The what?_

We all gather in the kitchen, where the kids open their D&D book and Dustin explains, “The Mind Flayer. It’s a being so ancient that it doesn’t even know its true home.”

Hopper groans. “This isn’t even real, it’s a kid’s game.”

“First of all,” Dustin says. “It isn’t for kids. Also? It’s not a game, it’s a manual. And unless you have a better metaphor-”

Lucas cuts in with, “Analogy.”

Dustin turns to him. “That’s what you’re worried about right now? Fine. Analogy.” He looks back at Hopper as he goes on, “This is the best that we have.”

“If this thing is like the Mind Flayer, why would it be here?” I ask slowly.

“To take over our world, basically,” Dustin answers. “It believes it’s the master race.”

“Right.” Steve nods. “Like the Germans.”

I can’t stop myself from muttering, “Oh my god.”

“Uh, the Nazis?” Dustin responds in frustration.

Steve looks confused even as he says, “Yeah, the Nazis.”

Nancy is holding the book, reading something, when Hopper grabs the book from her and asks, “How do we kill this thing? Shoot fireballs at it or something?”

“No,” Dustin laughs, shaking his head. “No fireballs. What you need to do is summon an army of the undead…” He trails off when he realizes that we’re all staring at him in disbelief. “Because, uh, the Mind Flayer? It likes brains.”

Now we’re all staring at him like he’s insane.

He falters as he says, “And- and zombies don’t… uh, don’t have brains…” He trails off again before saying, “It’s just a game.”

Hopper throws down the book. “Great.”

“I thought we were waiting for your military backup,” Mike says.

“We are.”

“And even if they come, then what? We can’t just shoot these things with guns.”

In my opinion, he has a point.

Still, Hopper says, “You don’t know that.”

“We already know that those things killed everyone in that lab!”

Mike and Hopper are arguing when Mrs. Byers comes out of her bedroom. She looks like a mess, which is kind of expected given what’s going on with Will. Not to mention the fact that she watched the Demodogs, which is what Dustin has been calling the baby Demogorgons, kill her boyfriend.

I feel terrible for her. This poor woman and her family can’t catch a break.

I guess none of us can, really, but I don’t think anyone can deny that the Byers have gotten the worst of it when it comes to the Upside Down.

We come up with a plan to disguise the shed and take Will in there, where the Byers, Mike, and Hopper are going to try to get through to Will and hopefully find out how to get rid of the Mind Flayer.

Disguising the shed takes a while, and after a few minutes of being in the shed, Hopper realizes that Will is trying to communicate by morse code. So, using walkie-talkies, Hopper taps out the code and we eventually find out how to solve our problems.

**CLOSEGATE**

“Close Gate,” I read out loud. How are we supposed to do that?

The phone starts ringing and Dustin picks it up before immediately hanging up. Whoever it is tries calling again, and this time Nancy rips the phone off the wall and throws it across the room.

“Do you think he heard that?” Max asks.

“That doesn’t mean anything, right?” Steve asks. “We could be anywhere.”

But then the Demodogs start howling.

Everyone in the shed immediately comes inside. Mike, Mrs. Byers, and Jonathan carry Will into his room and Hopper comes into the living room.

“Hey! Get away from there,” Hopper tells the younger kids, who are all looking out the front window. We’re all in the living room when he holds a shotgun out toward Jonathan. “Can you use this?”

“What?”

“Can you use this?”

Nancy holds out her hands. “I can.”

Hopper tosses the gun to her and she stands next to him, both of their guns aimed at the front door. Mike, Lucas, and Steve are behind them, holding a candlestick, a slingshot, and the bat with nails. Jonathan, Mrs. Byers, Max, Dustin, and I are all standing in the back of the room without any weapons.

We can hear the Demodogs moving around outside, and one comes through the front window. But it doesn’t attack. It stays laying on the floor.

Hopper steps forward and kicks it. It doesn’t react. He seems to breathe a sigh of relief before saying, “It’s dead.”

The bottom lock on the front door turns then, unlocking by itself. We all turn toward the door as the deadbolt unlocks. Then the chain slides out of place and the door swings open.


	12. Author's Note

I know everyone probably thought this was an update, and I'm sorry! But I'm posting this on all my stories because I know it's been a while since I've updated most of them, and I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm not abandoning any of my stories.  
I have multiple chronic illnesses, and I was somehow lucky enough to spend most of the year we've been in a world-wide pandemic without too many health issues. Then in October all of my illnesses decided to act up at once, and it got even worse in November. I'm finally starting to feel better (although that could change), so I'm hoping that I'll be able to get back to my writing soon!


	13. Chapter 12

Of all the things I could have expected to come through the front door, Eleven would be one of the last.

But that's what, or I guess _who_ , walks into the house.

Mike and El rush to each other.

Max quietly asks, “Is that-?”

Lucas nods.

Mike hugs El as he tells her, “I never gave up on you. I called you. I called you every night for-”

“Three hundred and fifty-three days,” She says. “I heard.”

“Why didn’t you answer? Why didn’t you tell me you were ok?”

Before El can answer, Hopper says “Because I wouldn’t let her.” Then he asks El, “Where have you been?”

She glares at him. “Where have _you_ been?”

They hug each other.

I’m still trying to process the fact that she’s here at all when Mike slowly says, “You were hiding her.” He shoves Hopper. “You’ve been hiding her this whole time!”

“Hey.” Hopper turns to him. “Let’s talk.”

Hopper and Mike go down the hall, and the rest of the group breaks up. We’re safe… For now.

Steve comes over to me and asks, “Who is that?”

“That’s Eleven.” I can’t help smirking as I add, “I told you I’m not crazy.”

Before Steve can respond, El comes over and hugs me.

“I am so glad to see you,” I say. “And not just because you totally saved our asses a couple of minutes ago.”

“I was worried about you,” She tells. “The last time I saw you was with Papa and the Demogorgon.”

The last time El and I saw each other, things weren’t going well. “Well, I’m ok,” I tell her. I still can’t believe that _she’s_ ok. I can’t believe that she’s alive.

“I know. Hopper told me.”

She glances at Steve, and remembering that they haven’t met, I say, “This is Steve. And that’s another reason I’m glad you’re here. He didn’t believe that you were real.”

“Why not?”

“He thinks I’m crazy.”

“I never said that,” Steve argues.

He didn’t, but I still mutter, “I could feel you judging me.” I’m kidding. Mostly. If I’m being honest, I see how telling someone about Eleven might make me sound crazy.

Dustin calls Steve over then, and as Steve walks off, El asks me, “Boyfriend?”

“What?”

“Is he your boyfriend?”

“No.” I’m about to say that he’s Nancy’s boyfriend, but I don’t know if that’s true anymore. Especially with the way Nancy and Jonathan have barely left each other’s side since the Lab.

“Do you like him?”

I want to ask what made her decide to ask me this. Even though I’m still not sure why Billy brought it up the other day, I’ve decided that he was probably just trying to get under my skin. He seems like he enjoys being annoying. But El isn’t like that. Still, I don’t know how to answer her question, so I just say, “Why don’t you go talk to Mrs. Byers? We’ll catch up later.”

El goes over to Mrs. Byers, and for the first time in hours, I have a moment to try to figure out my feelings for Steve. Up until a few days ago, I hated him. But we’ve been stuck with each other since last night, and I’ve realized that when we aren’t arguing, talking to him isn’t so bad. I actually like talking to him.

I don’t know why I’m spending so much time thinking about this, though. Steve doesn’t feel that way about me.

It bothers me more than I want to admit.

It doesn’t matter right now, anyway. We all have way bigger things to worry about.

When Eleven and Mrs. Byers come out of Will’s room, Mrs. Byers shows her the message Will gave us. “You opened this gate before, right?” She asks Eleven.

“Yes.”

“Do you think that if you went back there you could close it?”

Before El can answer, Hopper does for her. “That’s not happening.” She turns to him, and he warns her, “It’s grown. A lot.”

Even though I know that we need to close the Gate and that El is the only one who can close it, I still can’t help muttering, “And that’s not even mentioning the baby Demogorgons.”

“Demodogs,” Dustin corrects.

Hopper looks at him. “What?”

“Demodogs,” He repeats. “Like, Demogorgons and dogs. You put them together, it sounds pretty badass.”

“How is this important right now?” Hopper snaps.

“It’s not.”

“I can do it,” El says suddenly.

"You're not hearing me."

“I am hearing you,” She insists. “I can do it.”

“Even if El can do it, there’s still another problem,” Mike says.

Will. Because if we kill this Mind Flayer-thing, then we’ll kill him too.

Sure enough, Mike goes on, “If the brain dies, the body dies.”

“I thought that was the point,” Max says.

“It is, but if we’re right about this? If El closes the Gate and kills the Mind Flayer’s army-”

“Will is a part of the army,” Lucas says quietly.

“Closing the Gate will kill him,” Mike confirms.

Mrs. Byers silently goes down the hall.

Everyone follows her.

She stares at Will, who’s still unconscious after being brought in from the shed, before she quietly says, “He likes it cold.” She crosses the room and slams the window shut.

Hopper looks at her. “What?”

“That’s what Will kept saying,” She explains. “‘He likes it cold’.” She sounds frustrated as she adds, “We keep giving this thing what it wants.”

Nancy speaks up then. “If the Mind Flayer is like a virus, and Will is the host…”

“Then we need to make the host uninhabitable,” Jonathan says.

“So if he likes it cold…”

“We need to burn it out of him,” Mrs. Byers says.

“And we have to do it somewhere he doesn’t know this time,” Mike adds.

It’s quiet for a moment before Hopper tells everyone, “I know a place.”


End file.
